


Giving Thanks

by eternaleponine



Series: Where There Is A Flame [18]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Dinner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-06 00:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12805335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternaleponine/pseuds/eternaleponine
Summary: Lexa and Clarke celebrate their first Thanksgiving with their adopted daughter Madi... and the rest of their crazy extended family.





	Giving Thanks

Lexa ended up having to park half a block away from the house where Lincoln, Octavia, Murphy and Emori lived. She wasn't sure if everyone was there for _their_ gathering or if some of the cars were for other houses, but there were still a lot of them. "Are we even all going to fit in the house?" she joked. 

"Grab your backpack," Clarke reminded Madi. "Octavia said something about having to do a lot of rearranging of furniture to make room for enough tables and chairs... and having to borrow chairs," she said in response to Lexa's question. 

"I guess it can't be any worse than thirteen of us at Anya's," Lexa said. "Do you remember that year?"

"Of course I remember," Clarke said, taking Lexa's hand and bringing it to her lips, kissing her knuckles. "It was our first Thanksgiving together." 

They both looked down at Madi at the same time. Now they were having their first Thanksgiving as a family of three... except it was actually closer to a family of two dozen, because someone (Lexa wasn't sure who) had decided that it would be a great idea to get _everyone_ together, or as close to everyone as they could manage. Which turned out to be a lot of people.

There was a sign on the door when they arrived that said, "Just come in." It looked like Emori's writing, so she'd probably gotten sick of answering the door. And if a random stranger happened to take the sign as an invitation... assuming they weren't some kind of serial killer, they would probably let them just pull up a chair. 

"It's okay, Madi," Lexa said when she balked in the entryway at the sudden increase in volume. She crouched down to help her out of her coat. "You know everyone here." 

"I know," Madi said, but she didn't look all that convinced. Thankfully, she spotted Raven a minute later, sitting on one of the couches, and went over to say hi without prompting. Lexa followed, and Raven smiled at her. "Anya's in the kitchen," she said. "Murphy actually deigned to allow her to assist."

"I can't believe he thought it would be a good idea to cook for everyone himself," Clarke said. "It would have been so much easier if he'd just let people bring things. Then he wouldn't have to spend the entire day in the kitchen."

Lexa turned when she heard someone snort. Emori, coming over to greet them, or maybe just wandering past and happening to overhear. "All day?" she said. "Try all _week_. He's been doing prep for days. And allowing other people to contribute would one, require him to relinquish control, and we all know how much he likes that, and two, would 'compromise the integrity of the menu'." 

"Culinary school created a monster," Raven joked. 

"And yet you don't usually hear us complaining, because we get to reap the benefits," Octavia said. "Even if he's occasionally insufferable." 

"Only occasionally?" Raven asked. 

"Careful," Emori said. "You want to eat, right? Without fear of what the chef put in your food?" She winked. "You never know who might be a mole."

"Mole?" Madi asked, looking up from her tablet, which she'd gotten out to show a game to Raven on. "There's a mole?"

"Only in the sauce," Emori teased. 

Echo blanched. "God, I hope not," she said, and Lexa suspected there was a story behind that, but before she could ask (or decide if she was going to ask, which she probably shouldn't, because the more they got to know Echo, the more they realized how few stories she had between the ages of 15 and roughly 25 that didn't end with a shrug that managed to convey without words, 'Whatever, I survived it') the door opened again and they all had to get out of the way in a hurry as a small human projectile flew across the room and launched herself into Echo's arms, screeching her name as she ran and punctuating it with a smacking kiss to Echo's cheek when she scooped her up. 

"Hey, little monster," Echo said. "How are you?"

"Good," Veelu said, and then launched into a story about a boy at preschool who liked to pretend to be a dragon and destroy the castles she built, but only after she said it was okay, unlike _some_ boys who thought that they could just knock over whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and how it wasn't _fair_ that if they knocked over her castle why she couldn't knock _them_ over because how did _they_ like it?

Lexa leaned down so that Madi could hear her over the chattering. "Can you come say hi?" she asked. "Just for a minute, then you can come back to your game."

Madi looked up. "Okay," she said, setting her tablet carefully down on Raven's lap and getting up to greet Abby and Marcus and, surprisingly, Grammy Lou. 

"I didn't know you were coming," Clarke said to her grandmother as she hugged both of them at the same time before bending down to give Madi a squeeze. "Did Mom invite you?"

"Your friend John invited me," Grammy Lou said. "I got the impression that he was the one in charge of this shindig."

Madi grinned. "I don't think anyone uses that word anymore," she said.

"Well I do," Grammy Lou said. "I'm bringing it back. Everything that's old is new again. Including my hips." 

Clarke's eyes widened. "What? No one told me—"

"I'm joking," she said. "Don't panic. If I ever get so old and decrepit that I start to need replacement parts, you'll know about it. I'll be calling you up to get your engineer friend to design me the best robot hips a person can buy." She smiled and waved at Raven. 

"How does Murphy even have your number?" Clarke asked.

"You don't know everything about me," Grammy Lou said, "and you don't need to know, either." She winked at Lexa. 

"I'm pretty sure your mom is in everyone's phone as Emergency Mom at this point," Lexa pointed out. "No reason they can't have Emergency Grammy, too."

"Exactly," Grammy Lou said. "See, Clarke? Aren't you glad you married her? She's a smart one." 

"Every day," Clarke said, which earned them a few gagging sounds from not-so-innocent bystanders. 

"Why don't you help me find a seat?" Grammy Lou said to Madi. "You can tell me all about school."

"Do I have to?" Madi asked, rolling her eyes so hard her entire face got involved. "Talk about school, I mean. I don't mind helping you find a seat. There's room on the couch."

They'd been there for a little over an hour when they were finally called to the table... which took more than a little shuffling around before they were actually all seated in a way that mostly kept families together (not that they weren't all family... that was the whole point) and where the lefties among them wouldn't be knocking elbows with the righties. They had to squeeze in Persephone's high chair, and find some pillows to boost Veelu up to table level, but eventually they were all situated. 

"Please tell me we're not all going to have to go around and say what we're thankful for," Tris said, in what was probably meant to be an undertone to Aden, but she managed to hit a conversational lull so everyone heard her. Her cheeks flushed pink and she grimaced. "I mean... it would just take forever and everyone's going to say 'family' anyway..." 

"I don't think we were planning on it," Anya said, poking her head in from the kitchen. "but since you brought it up..."

"Oh god," Tris said. "I take it back! Pretend I never said anything!"

"We don't all have to go before we start eating," Anya said.

"Good, because the soup would get cold," Murphy said. 

"But," Anya continued, "I think it would actually be interesting, with the caveat that no one can say that they're thankful for family." 

Now everyone groaned, and Lexa could practically hear the gears turning in their heads as they tried to figure out what they were going to say. Hell, _she_ needed to figure out what she was going to say, because yes, she had plenty to be thankful for, but wasn't most of it wrapped up in the people that were in this room? 

"Why don't you start?" Anya suggested to Tris, smiling sweetly, "while we bring out the soup."

Tris' face scrunched up, and she looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here. Finally Grammy Lou saved her. "I'll start," she said. "I am thankful that I still have all of my original factory-issue parts, and they're all still in reasonable working order." 

Everyone laughed. "I'm thankful for new opportunities," Abby, who was sitting next to her, said, "that allow me to better balance work and life." Meaning, Lexa figured, that she was glad that she'd been able to get a good job somewhere where she could be closer to them.

"I'm thankful for actually getting to sleep in this morning," Marcus said, "and not being woken up by a two-legged alarm clock." He reached out and poked Veelu, who just smiled angelically at him.

"I'm thankful for my BTF," Veelu announced, reaching out to pat Echo's arm. At the confused looks on some of the faces, she explained as if they were the four-year-olds, "Best Tol Friend. I am also thankful that my preschool teachers now believe me that she's not imaginary." 

That got another laugh, as did the very concerned expression on Veelu's face when her soup was set in front of her. "Is it _supposed_ to be that color?" she asked in a stage whisper.

"Yes," Murphy whispered back. "If you don't like it, we can find something else, but I've heard that you have an adventurous palate, so I thought you might like to give it a try."

"What's an adventurous palate?" she asked. 

"It means you like lots of different foods," Echo explained, "and you're not afraid to try new things."

"Oh," Veelu said, straightening up a little. "Okay. I'll try it!" She picked up her spoon and dug in, an after a minute she smiled and nodded. "It's good!"

"Awesome," Murphy said, finally taking his own seat to join in the meal. 

"How is it?" Lexa asked Madi. 

"Really good," Madi said, slurping up another spoonful... then looking shifty-eyed at Clarke because she knew she wasn't supposed to slurp. Clarke didn't say anything; her point had been made without her needing to. 

"Good," Lexa said. Everyone else seemed to agree, because there was quiet for several minutes as bowls were steadily emptied. The servings weren't large, but from what she had heard, there would be many more courses to come. Dinner was likely to take a while, but maybe that was better than everyone just stuffing themselves silly and going into food comas in front of the TV. Did any of them even _watch_ football? 

The bowls were gathered and taken to the kitchen, and the next course – a salad in which lettuce appeared to be the minority ingredient, with green apples, cranberries, and candied walnuts dominating – was brought out. 

"Where were we?" Anya asked. 

"Echo!" Veelu announced. "It was Echo's turn."

"Way to throw me under the bus," Echo said. 

Veelu frowned. "There's no bus..."

"It's an expression," Echo said. "Don't worry about it." She looked down at her salad for a moment, then said, "I'm thankful for the chance to have a quiet life." 

Which from anyone else might have seemed strange, but Echo's life up to that point had been a lot more eventful than most people's would ever be, and not long ago she'd decided, after a long period of soul-searching and more than a few bouts of depression, that maybe going back to her roots of growing herbs and making soap wasn't the worst thing that she could do. 

"And goats!" Veelu said. 

"I don't have goats yet," Echo reminded her. "Probably not until spring." She was still looking for a piece of land that was big enough (and zoned) for livestock, but small enough to manage, and close enough that she and Luna wouldn't be completely separated from the rest of the family. 

"Annnnd...?" Veelu prompted.

"Annnnd...?" Echo looked at her, confused, then realized what she was looking for. Lexa saw her battling a smile. "And my best smol friend."

"I know," Veelu said smugly. 

Laughing would only encourage her, but it was pretty much impossible not to. 

"Luna?" Echo said, passing the torch. 

"I'm thankful for the fact that in the middle of the night Echo's filters go offline," she said, "and she says what the really means."

"You accidentally propose _one time_ and they never let you live it down," Echo said, shaking her head. 

They'd all heard the story, because Luna loved telling it. Echo pretended to be annoyed, but she wasn't, really. How could she be, when the end result was that they got to spend the darkest days of winter planning a wedding? Because somewhere in the middle-of-the-night conversation about Echo being tired of tending bar and pretty much never getting to see Luna because of their opposite schedules, and Luna's encouraging her to pursue goats and herbs and soap if it was what would make her happy, she'd asked, "You would be a farmer's wife?" Luna had said yes. 

"You two are so gross," Murphy said. 

"Does that mean you're not going to help cater the wedding?" Luna asked.

"Whoa, hey, let's not go crazy here. I can work with gross," he said, hands up in surrender. 

"That's what I thought."

"You really should think about going into business for yourself," Lincoln said. "Opening a restaurant or a food truck or a catering business. I happen to know a guy who knows a thing or two about business who might be willing to help you out." 

"I'm thinking about it," Murphy admitted. "Just trying to decide what direction I want to go."

"Fair enough," Lincoln said. "If you need anything, you know where to find me."

"Just follow the sounds of snoring," Octavia joked. 

"I had a cold!" Lincoln grumbled. 

"What about you?" Luna asked Ontari, before the argument could really pick up momentum. "What are you thankful for?"

"I'm thankful to have a holiday that's not a publicity stunt," Ontari said. "I'm thankful to actually have a place to call home."

That left everyone quiet, the words heavy but heartfelt, and at least the second part one that many of them shared. They finished their salads and Ontari got up to help clear the dishes, probably grateful for the excuse to get up and move. Lexa understood, maybe better than just about anyone else there, how sometimes you needed to walk away from things that you said, or felt, or risk them crushing you under their weight.

Next they were served baskets of a variety of different kinds of bread and rolls, with butters flavored with different herbs to spread on them, and it was hard to resist the urge to fill up on them, because they were all so good. 

"One more?" Madi pleaded. "I promise it won't ruin my dinner. And I wore stretchy pants so there's plenty of room." She grinned, and Lexa gave in and let her have one more roll. 

"I'm thankful for paid holidays," Niylah said. "Which means I can sit here and enjoy the day with all of you, and get paid for it." She smiled, and there were nods of agreement from some, and groans from others who didn't have that benefit, and who might never have it, depending on where their lives and careers took them. 

The next course was brought out, which contained several different preparations of vegetables. 

"What is _that_?" Veelu asked, pointing to a pile of yellow strings that kind of looked like noodles, but Lexa was pretty sure were not actually noodles. 

"It's spaghetti..." Murphy said, and Veelu apparently didn't notice the way that his voice dragged at the end, like there was something else that he wasn't saying. She brightened and picked up her fork, shoveling a big bite into her mouth. "... squash," he finished.

Lexa immediately wished that she had her camera, because the look on the little girl's face was priceless. She stopped chewing, her cheeks puffed out, looking betrayed and unsure as to whether she could get away with spitting it out. 

"It's okay," Abby said. "Just finish chewing and swallow."

"But I _hate_ squish!" Veelu wailed. 

"It's not going to hurt you," Echo reassured her. She glanced at Abby, then added, "If you really don't like it, you don't have to eat any more." 

Veelu swallowed the probably half-chewed squash with a big gulp, her lower lip jutting out. "It doesn't taste like spaghetti _at all_ ," she sulked. 

"I think it's okay," Madi said. "I mean, it's definitely not _spaghetti_ , but it's not _bad_." 

Maybe when it was finally her turn Lexa would say that she was thankful that Madi wasn't a picky eater. On the list of things that she could deal with, she wasn't sure that having a child who refused to eat more than a few things was very, very low. 

She glanced around the table and realized that if they kept going in order, she would be last. Shit. No pressure. She was tempted to say something now, just to break the rotation and get it out of the way, but _someone_ had to be last. Might as well be her. She just had to make sure to think of something good.

"Everyone's a critic," Murphy said. "And are you _sure_ you don't like 'squish'? Because that soup you liked was also made with it."

"What?!" Veelu's look of utter horror was absolutely hilarious... to everyone but her. She looked at her mom, who shrugged, and Echo, who nodded, and told her, "Sorry, kiddo." Veelu crossed her arms tightly over her chest, pouting at this trickery. 

"There's actually a story behind the spaghetti squash," Emori said. "It just... appeared one day. No one remembers buying it, or no one will cop to having done so. It's—"

" _He's_ ," Octavia corrected.

"Right," Emori said. "He's just been sitting there on the kitchen counter for weeks, and we keep saying we need to do something with him, and then it wouldn't happen, so he would live to fight another day."

"So finally," Murphy said, "I looked at Hans today and said, 'Sorry, pal. The jig is up. It's time you met your maker.' And there he is, in all his guts and glory."

Madi's fork shifted from the pile of not-noodles to the green beans next to them.

"Why is he German?" Luna asked.

"I think you're overthinking this," Echo replied. 

"Anyway," Murphy said, "I am thankful for my Kitchen-Aid, which was brought to me with the financial support of diners like you." The incredibly expensive (but industry-standard and practically indestructible) mixer had been a birthday gift that they'd all chipped in to get him. Lexa thought he might actually have teared up when he opened it, but of course if anyone had dared comment he would have claimed allergies or dust getting in his eye or something. 

Emori grinned. "I am also thankful for your Kitchen-Aid. Not only does it mean that we have fresh bread pretty much all of the time, but it's also means that we don't have to think about what to get you for birthdays or Christmas for a very long time, because attachments." 

"I see my subliminal messages have been working," he said, leaning in to her to whisper in her ear, "Pasta maker... ice cream bowl... slicer..." 

"Don't push your luck," she said. 

The next course was the one that actually brought in the elements of Thanksgiving that everyone expected: turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce. He hadn't even tried to go all molecular gastronomy deconstruction on them, which might have been interesting, but might also have made it feel less like a proper thanksgiving meal. 

"I am thankful that Murphy let me actually help out," Anya said. "Mostly doing prep work, because apparently I can't be trusted with anything else," she looked at him sidelong, "but I guess there's no shame in being a sous chef."

"If I had anything to do with this, I wouldn't care what I got called, as long as I got some of the credit," Raven said. "I didn't know that it was possible for turkey to taste like anything other than sawdust."

"Excuse you!" Anya said. "What are you saying about the past few Thanksgivings?"

"Your turkey was delicious," Raven backpedaled. "Best turkey I've ever had... until now." 

"Does that count as a save?" Octavia asked. "I'm not sure that counts as a save." 

"Our couch is very comfortable," Tris said. "I guess that's what Raven will be thankful for tonight." She grinned. 

"I don't think so," Raven said. "If anyone's sleeping on the couch, it's you. You're the one who started all of this!"

"I'm not the one who insulted M—Anya's turkey!" Tris said. 

"No one is sleeping on the couch," Anya said, rolling her eyes. "I was just joking." 

"So were we," Tris said. "Probably. Mostly." 

"What _are_ you thankful for?" Anya asked Raven. 

Raven considered for a minute. "I'm thankful for getting to do a job that I love, where I'm actually trusted to know what I'm doing, despite my anatomy," she said. Which they all knew was no small thing. Raven had recently quit the job she'd gotten when she finished school, which paid more and had better benefits than her current one, because she couldn't stand the way that the women working there got treated. It had been a risk, and Lexa was glad that it had ended up paying off, if not financially than in other ways. 

"What about you?" Raven asked, nudging Tris. "Miss Instigator? You've had plenty of time to think."

"I'm thankful for being a senior," Tris said. "I'm definitely ready to be done with high school." But she didn't actually look too sure about that fact, and Lexa knew from talking to Anya that she was more than a little nervous about going to college (and not 100% sure she wanted to go to college in the first place) and just generally unsettled about the possibility of her life being turned on its head just when she'd really started to feel comfortable in it. 

"And _I'm_ thankful for the fact that college isn't as hard as high school teachers try to make you think it is," Aden said. "Maybe it's just because I'm mostly taking gen eds this semester, or maybe because I haven't gotten to finals yet, but everyone makes it sound like it's going to be the hardest thing you've ever done, and mostly it's just... as long as you don't put everything off until the last minute and party all the time, it's fine." 

"Well would you listen to him?" Octavia faked wiping a tear as she looked at Clarke and Lexa. "You must be so proud to have raised such a mature and responsible son." 

Lexa rolled her eyes and Clarke swatted Octavia's shoulder. "For the last time—"

"Yeah, it's definitely not going to be the last time," Octavia said. "If Clexa babies could happen, they would totally look like Aden and Madi." 

Madi straightened slightly in her chair, beaming at the idea that she looked like the two of them. Which, to be fair, she kind of did. Mostly like Lexa, with her dark hair and green eyes, but it still pleased her. Lexa squeezed the back of her neck gently, and Madi turned to look at her, eyes bright. 'Love you,' Lexa mouthed, and Madi smiled so wide it looked like it ought to hurt.

"Clexa?" Clarke said. "Seriously?"

"You know you want to be the next Brangelina," Octavia said.

"Didn't they break up?" Raven asked.

"Don't bother me with your inconsequential details," Octavia replied. "Bell?"

"I'm thankful for the fact that I made all of my mistakes helping raise you," he said, "so I don't have to worry about messing up my own kid." 

Lexa fought back the urge to roll her eyes. Years later, and they still didn't really get along. They probably never would. Mostly they just avoided each other so that no one else ever got put in a position where they had to take sides. 

_Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors,_ Lexa thought, because you could find something from Hamilton to suit pretty much any situation.

"What about you, Persy?" he asked, tickling the baby in the high chair beside him. "What are you thankful for?"

She screeched, and Lexa winced. At just shy of a year old, Persephone only had a grasp on a few words. Most of her communication still consisted primarily of squawks, wails, and nonsensical babble. She was glad that they'd gotten to skip that stage with Madi, and had mostly missed it with Veelu as well. 

"I think she's thankful for teeth," Gina said, "so she can actually share some of the meal with us." 

As if on cue, the baby grinned, showing off the eight teeth she had at her disposal: four on top and four on the bottom. She then reached over and managed to grab some of the cranberry sauce from Gina's plate, mashing it into her face (which left her looking more than a little the smallest extra on _The Walking Dead_ ). A second later it hit her tastebuds and her entire face puckered. 

"Uh-oh," Veelu said, covering her ears. 

Gina grabbed a napkin and dipped it in her glass of water, and quickly used it to wipe not only Persephone's face but the inside of her mouth, and by some miracle, she didn't start to wail. "Crisis averted," she said. "For which I'm sure we're _all_ thankful."

"Here here," Lincoln said, raising his glass. "I know that Thanksgiving is at least in part about celebrating the harvest and having plenty, but I'm thankful to have _enough_. Enough money to cover more than just the basics, enough food, enough space, enough time... It's more of a luxury than a lot of people realize."

"I second that," Clarke said. They're recently learned just how precious a commodity some of those things were... especially time. Lexa had always felt like she was struggling to find enough hours in the day and days in the week, but having a kid compounded that more than she'd imagined it would. It had given her a hard lesson in priorities, and what things were really important and what she could let slide. 

"I'm thankful for health," Octavia said. "Physical and mental." 

Lincoln put his arm around her and squeezed, and Lexa saw Bellamy leaning over trying to reach her, but there were too many people in between. Their mother had recently had a serious downswing without them realizing how bad it was until it was really, really bad, and they were still picking up the pieces from it and trying to get her back on track. 

"On that note," Murphy said, "I think it's time for some dessert." 

The plates were cleared, and he came back with multi-tiered trays like fancy restaurants that hosted afternoon tea used, stacked thickly with probably hundreds of tiny tarts. 

"It's like the year of a dozen pies all over again," Anya said, "but in miniature." 

"Can I have one of each?" Madi asked hopefully.

"Yes," Lexa said. They were small enough to only be a bite or two each, so even if she had one of each kind, it wouldn't add up to more than one, maybe two slices of regular pie. Which was still probably more sugar than she ought to have, but it was Thanksgiving. The whole point was to eat too much food that was mostly bad for you. 

"That was the first Thanksgiving that most of us spent together," Clarke said. 

"That was the first time I met most of you," Echo said. "Because Lincoln knew I was a liar when I said that I would be fine on my own." 

"You've gotten better about that," Luna said.

"I guess it's my turn," Clarke said. "So what I'm thankful for is the Department of Child and Family Services taking a chance on two girls who had basically nothing to recommend them but love and good intentions."

"That sounds suspiciously like being thankful for family," Murphy said. 

"So does half of what everyone else said," Clarke said. "Not all of us have kitchen appliances to be thankful for." 

"Fine," Murphy said. "We'll let it pass... this time." 

"Because you're the ultimate arbiter of what is and is not acceptable to be thankful for?" Raven asked, an eyebrow raised. "Who appointed you the boss of everyone?"

"I'm not saying that it's not acceptable to be thankful for," Murphy argued. "I'm just saying that it's a lot like being thankful for family, which I believe it was your girlfriend who declared was off-limits." 

"Well it was also _my daughter_ who started all of this, so maybe she should be the one to decide."

"Um." Tris blinked, apparently stunned into silence by the fact that Raven has called her her daughter. Lexa wasn't sure if it was the first time, but the dynamic was far enough from that of a traditional family that she thought they mostly tried to avoid labeling things. "I say it's okay," she finally said. 

"Thank you," Clarke said. "Madi?"

Madi looked from one side to the other, having just stuffed an entire tart into her mouth at once. "Uhh..."

"Chew and swallow first," Lexa said, handing her a glass of water to wash it down when she as done. "And maybe next time it should be two bites instead of one."

"Mmmbee," Madi mumbled. She looked down, obviously not enjoying being the center of attention. 

"Do you want me to go first?" Lexa asked. 

Madi shook her head, taking a sip of her water. "No, I'm done," she said. "I'm thankful that my moms know so many awesome people who know how to do things like sew and make pretend armor," she said. "So I could have the coolest Halloween costume of everyone."

Gina smiled. "You definitely did have the coolest costume," she said.

"Obviously," Tris added. "You're the coolest kid in school."

"I didn't wear it to school, though," Madi said. "Mama said me wearing white to school was a 'recipe for disaster'." Everyone laughed, and it took a minute for Madi to realize that they weren't actually laughing at her. 

"I guess that just leaves me," Lexa said. 

"We saved the best for last," Clarke said. Murphy pretended to gag, until Emori smacked him upside the head. 

"I'm thankful for hope," Lexa said, "and the fact that I was never allowed to give up, no matter how many times I wanted to. I'm thankful that I was always pushed to take the harder road, because in the end, it was all worth it."

She saw Emori jab Murphy with an elbow to stop him from saying anything snarky in response. Lexa knew that it was sappy, and maybe she should have come up with something funny to say so that they could end with laughter instead of silence, but as the words settled over them she saw many of them nodding in agreement or understanding. 

"Happy Thanksgiving," Anya said. 

"God bless us, everyo—" Murphy was cut off by a tart being crammed into his mouth by Niylah. 

"Ignore him," she said. "He was raised by wolves."

"Really?" Veelu asked, clambering from her chair into Echo's lap. 

"No, not really," Echo said, helping her to settle and wrapping an arm around her waist. "But you should still ignore him."

"Okay," Veelu said, resting her head back against Echo's shoulder, clearly tired after so long sitting still and eating. Echo turned her head to kiss her hair. 

After dinner, Clarke went to the kitchen to help with the dishes, and Lexa helped put the furniture back where it normally went. Madi snuggled up to Grammy Lou, who seemed happy to listen to her talk about anything and everything that popped into her head. They stayed for another few hours, talking and playing games, before Lexa caught Madi yawning so wide it looked like her jaw might unhinge itself. Abby and Marcus had already taken a protesting Veelu home, having had to pry her off of Echo, and Grammy Lou had gone with them. 

"Come on, bug," Lexa said. "Make sure you've got everything. It's time to go."

"I don't want to," Madi said. "I'm not tired."

"Maybe you're not," Lexa said. "But I am, and I'm the one driving. So unless you want to spend the night here with snoring Lincoln..."

Madi giggled. "No!" 

"Then you need to pack up so we can go home." 

"Okay," Madi sighed, and went to make sure all of her books and crayons and charging cords were tucked back into her backpack. 

Lexa slowly made the rounds, saying goodbye to everyone. Murphy shoved a container into her hands. "There weren't a lot of leftovers, but..." He shrugged. "There's some pies in there. I figured Madi would appreciate those."

"What is with you people sugaring our kid up and then sending her home?" Lexa asked. 

"Isn't that what aunts and uncles are for?" he asked. "Pretty sure that's somewhere in the rule book."

"I wish someone had given _us_ a copy," Lexa said. 

"Too late now," Murphy said. "Thanks for coming."

"Thanks for inviting us," Lexa said. "I hope you get to rest for the next few days."

"Oh, trust me, I plan on it."

They got Madi buckled into the back of the car and Lexa drove them home. It was late enough that they sent Madi straight to bed, and she didn't protest. "Did you have a good time?" Clarke asked as they tucked her in. 

"Yeah," Madi said. "I wish that there were more kids, though."

"I don't know if that's going to happen any time soon," Clarke said. "And if it does, they'll probably be babies like Persy."

"They don't have to be," Madi said. "They could get a kid like me."

"They who?"

"I dunno," Madi said. " _Somebody._ "

"I guess you know what to ask Santa for for Christmas," Clarke said. 

Madi rolled her eyes. "Santa's not real, Mom," she said. 

"What?!" Clarke clutched her hands over her heart. "What do you mean, Santa's not real?"

Madi looked like she wasn't sure whether to laugh or question Clarke's sanity. "Someone made him up to make kids behave," she said. "I mean, don't you think it's creepy, 'He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake'? I'm pretty sure if Santa's real he would get arrested."

Lexa bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing as they kissed her good night and slipped out of the room. 

"Dibs," Lexa said as soon as the door was shut. "I am so posting that."

Clarke made a face at her. "No fair."

"All's fair in love and social media," Lexa said. "But I'll make it up to you."

Clarke grinned. "You better."

**Author's Note:**

> I forgot to include this when I originally posted, but better later than never, I guess?
> 
> I just want to say that I am thankful for all of you, for the support that you've given this series of stories, these characters, and me as a writer. You have really kept me going through the past (rather hellish) year, and I look forward to continuing to share stories with all of you, both in this little world and in others. ♥


End file.
